“We were about to head back to base when we saw smoke coming from down the street, so we decided to investigate,” explained Sgt. Matthew Odom, of Norman, Oklahoma, a Soldier assigned to Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 1st Battalion, 279th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, also known as the “Thunderbirds.”

The smoke was coming from an apartment building that had caught fire.

Odom, along with fellow Thunderbirds Sgt. Nelson Deese, Spc. Vincent Humerickhouse, Spc. Kellar Jackson, Spc. Aaron Moore and Pfc. Kevin Polk, rushed into the burning building and evacuated the third floor before local firefighters arrived on scene.

“We kept asking if there was anyone still in the building, and finally we found someone who spoke English who said that there was,” Odom said. “Sgt. Deese and I just gave each other a look; it was like we knew what the other was thinking and we just stormed in.”

“Instinctively, we all just ran inside and started getting people out,” said Jackson, a native of Watonga, Oklahoma. “There was a lot of smoke. It was chaotic and intense.”

The language barrier made the situation even more difficult, Jackson said.

3 comments:

I wish that was the case, and perhaps it is. Perhaps the learned trait is whipping out a cellphone and recording a drowning man while laughing. If the latter is learned, I want to chat with the teachers.